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I developed my notion of leadership from below as a counterweight to traditional top-down leadership. Usually, leaders tell people what to do based on a position of authority within a hierarchical structure. A non-hierarchical, bottom-up leadership perspective is far from unique. However, I developed my own view, and I wrote it down. One could say it is based on my fieldwork in the US, Norway and Italy, on eclectic reading, on my experience from starting up businesses, from founding a think tank, and from having opinions about a great many things in fields where I at the outset had no reason to be particularly authoritative.

No, wait, let me give you the real impetus – I spent a year in the Norwegian Army. I recall being bossed around. I didn’t like it (but I loved it when I got my NAIS medal for markmanship). My colonel once brought me to his office to say that my attitude was fine if I was a general, but not fine for a private. He then said he recognized the attitude – he had been the same way. Then he scolded me for being as dumb as him. His advice was to just do what people told me to do. To fit in. To accept decisions that were wrong because it was the right thing to do. I guess this book, Leadership from below, I mean, is my revenge.

In short, for the good part of my youth I have been an opinionated bastard, or as the euphemism goes, an intellectual of sorts. However, I have always been an ideas-to-action kind of guy. Mere speculation and endless research was never enough. This is probably why I needed a break from university (I have spent time in a few, such as NTNU, the University of Naples Federico II, University of Liege, and UC Berkeley). Life as a researcher was too monotonous. I wanted more. I wanted to make an impact. Leadership from below starts there – with the wish to make an impact.

I will give some more explanation about how my own background quite nicely demonstrates that leadership from below works in a later post.

Please note the opportunity to submit articles to several forthcoming issues of a journal with EU policy presence. The European Journal of ePractice will also accept contributions and opinion pieces from practitioners. I am the editor, so feel free to get in touch. From the Call for Papers: Taking a strategic view of ICT has never been more needed than now. […]

The short story is, the Commission has a proposal on the table for a slight update to the inner workings of European Standardization. The key part of the proposal has the form of a Regulation. The regulation would recognize technical specifications in the field of ICT. However, a public body must first apply for recognition of such specification, so this is […]

"With today's proposal to contribute theOpenOffice.org code to The Apache Software Foundation's Incubator, Oracle continues to demonstrate its commitment to the developer and open source communities. Donating OpenOffice.org to Apache gives this popular consumer software a mature, open, and well established infrastructure to continue well into […]

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,600 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 43 trips to carry that many people. Click here to see the […]

Common sense would indicate that you do not make wine in New England. Winters are coldish. Spring is latish. Summer is shortish. Fall is pretty but unpredictable. Yet, people do. Why? the new frontier for wine pioneers For the full article, see Wine in Vermont (html), Color Magazine USA, Ed. 41, October/November 2011.

Summer brought bliss and blush. Rosé wine towered wine displays everywhere. It has been enjoyable, right? You must admit it was fun. But can you honestly admit to your friends that you prefer blush to bizarre in wine. Or, are you ashamed of it? Is rosé good or great? For the full article, see Rosé […]

“If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?” Have you ever been asked that question? Most of us have. And what’s interesting is that I’ve never met a person who replied, “Nothing. I’m perfect just the way I am.”For most of us, it’s not a question of if we want to change, but how. We want a better tomorrow. We have desires, dreams, and ho […]

In 2010 I got the opportunity to speak at Joyce Meyer’s Love Life Women’s Conference. Joyce and I are good friends, and I’ve often appeared on her television show. On this day I chose to talk about how to live a fulfilling life, and about the importance of attitude. When I got up to speak, I told the audience that for ten years I had spoken to men at Promise […]

I love collecting good quotes. I've been doing so for over 40 years. One subject where I have literally dozens of wonderful quotes is communication. It's one of my passions, so I pay close attention to what great communicators have to say on the subject. Here are just a few of my favorite quotes on communication. I hope they inspire and encourage y […]

Today, Tom's in Florida escaping the New England so-called spring—two feet of snow still on the ground in places. He's speaking to the Firebirds Annual Managers Awards Meeting in Fort Lauderdale. Presentations: Firebirds Managers Awards Meeting, Final Firebirds Managers Meeting, Long Version The post Firebirds Meeting appeared first on Tom Peters. […]

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When we interviewed Rajesh Setty for our Cool Friends collection, he described himself as a serial entrepreneur. Since then, he's skipped from one good idea to another, always with the the same goal, the tag line for his blog, "Bringing Ideas to Life, With Love!" Tom participated in a recent project, Audvisor. In Setty's words: […] The po […]

All of us could use some advice on how to manage our finances. But Steven D. Lockshin says we ought to heed a billboard-sized warning: Be careful out there. “[T]he financial advice industry,” he says in his important new book Get Wise to Your Advisor: How to Reach Your Investment Goals Without Getting Ripped Off, […]

Not everyone craves the proverbial key to the executive washroom, but nearly everyone wants to have influence in their workplace, have others think well of them, and attain success in a way that’s meaningful to their lives. Joel Garfinkle has coached countless executives in how to reach their goals, and now he’s written a book called […]